This blog entry has been adapted and first appeared on DanceEdTips.com on October 15, 2019. “Art becomes more important than ever to answer man’s need to participate, to experience total involvement, to restore psychic balance, to compensate for the spiritual inadequacies of the present. In one way or another, the philosophers of the human experience…
Hey, new K-12 teacher! When you teach dance, there is a good chance that your administrators and even your instructional coaches will not understand your specialized language. They are likely to recognize markers of high-quality instruction, so keep this in mind when you’re trying to impress them. It’s likely these folks will be evaluating your…
This blog post picks up from “America’s Hidden Figures Deserve the Light of Day“ Hardly had the ink dried on many university presidents’ statements responding to the civil unrest of 2020 than the backlash began. I was one of the countless educators preparing the summer of 2020 to teach amid a global pandemic. I watched…
(This entry was originally a social media post on my personal page.) One of my biggest joys this year has been teaching kids again. I’ve been teaching beginning contemporary for 10-12 year olds regularly, but yesterday I was asked to sub hip-hop for 6-8-year-olds with only about an hour to prepare. I said yes. I…
While the vast majority of the nation’s educators are embracing culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy- and seeing excellent results- we are also living in an era in which a book like Hidden Figures can be labeled as “divisive content” and put under review by the local school board. When white parents say things like, “I…
Practice is the means of inviting the perfection desired. — Martha Graham In secondary dance programs, it can be difficult to create space for everything we want to address in our curriculum. Finding adequate time to develop critical dance competencies is challenge number one, especially when the typical class format is under an hour. Tasked…
You may be wondering… Now that I’ve landed this fabulous dance teaching position, what are the expectations regarding what I teach? Must I align each lesson plan with the dance education standards from my state? Will the standards benefit my students? Will they benefit me? Educational standards benefit the dance educator in at least three…
Welcome to the new school year! Your classroom is beautifully arranged. You have plans set for the entire first quarter. On the first day, everyone in your Beginning Dance class is well-behaved. Your first week with new students is quite calm, then things start to show signs of changing. If you give ’em an inch, they’ll take a mile. Turn your…
July 17 – 23: Dunham Teacher Certification WorkshopJuly 25 – July 29: Dunham Technique Intensive The Institute for Dunham Technique Certification is dedicated to perpetuating the legacy of dancer/choreographer/anthropologist Katherine Dunham. (1909-2006) The Institute maintains a professional standard for the teaching of Dunham Technique, and creates a worldwide network of professional Dunham instructors who actively maintain…
I love meditations and vibrations of my skin in the cold grocery store aisle.
Life is good. Even crying I love.
Ear massage by my tears
swing down to the jawbone
to trace tracks of tears so slow….
Paul Sutherland, a Joffrey Ballet dancer who I knew as a student of the Grand Rapids Ballet School, was a tender man who sprinkled on baby powder and entered the studio every morning to perform hand-stand pushups against the wall. In class, he always addressed us as “dancers,” usually twice in a row, in his…
When I was growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, dance programs in the public schools did not exist. Luckily, I had ample art and music experiences at school, and the natural world to spur connection and introspection in my soul. Another twist of good fortune was the arrival of two principal dancers from the Joffrey…